Kong Fu - Artist Portrait: Alfonso Giraldes

Hey Jungle Painters, 

Roman just returned home from his painting class in Madrid, Spain.
It was his first time in Spain and he enjoyed a great journey. Thanks to everyone involved.
Roman will sit down soon to write the full review of the weeken, showing you full insight into such a cool and funny weekend, but before something personal has to be written of his soul.

Roman is now taking over:

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This is something different.
Something I was thinking about for a longer time now. Something very personal, that is why I call it Kong Fu. Something out of my perspective as a person, painter and teacher. I wanted to tell the Miniature Painters outthere about the Miniature painters that influanced me very much. I just had no idea where to start or with whom to start. I know exactly the persons I want to write about and what I want to write, but so far never had any idea of the format.

Now I found it. I want to start with a painter from Spain, Madrid that many people already know:

Alfonso Giraldes aka Banshee

 

"A banshee is a female spirit in Irish mythology who heralds the death of a family member, usually by shrieking or keening. Her name is connected to the mythologically-important tumuli or "mounds" that dot the Irish countryside, which are known as síde (singular síd) in Old Irish.^{[1]" -} From Wikipedia

Obviously Alfonso is not female, 
but he is loud, yelling, roaring, shrieking and keening.

I hear him since I started miniature painting.
When I started miniature painting myself Alfonso was already a big name in the miniature world. Winner of many Golden Demons, Slayer Swords and so on, but all this did not make him a great painter back then for me. 

His work was always something that fascinated me. Always. 
I learned from him from the beginning on I was taking a look at his work. Always.

The first contacts I had with him back then were only online and he was a dick -  unpolite and arrogant was my first impression I had when I recieved my first comment by him on CoolMiniorNot. 
And yes. I still think this comment was meant to be like that. I do not remember the comment right now, sorry. Nothing wrong with that, because this is Alfonso great strength:  
Honesty. Loud, yelling, roaring, shrieking and keening.

 Like a T-Rex, with the voice of a banshee.

Honesty is something very important in this life.
First of all honesty to yourself. That is what I have learned for myself. Know about your strength and your weaknesses. The goal of honesty to yourself is to create a better version of you in the future.

And why should Alfonso not be honest about if he does not like something?
He has the same strength in his voice when it comes to something he likes. 

Ok, he is loud and direct. I met him the first time at my first Monte San Savino Show and we had good, but talks with a certain distance, like two dogs smelling eachother. Now get these pictures out of your mind, please. I just did not find better words for it. Good talks in Italy, but we did not know eachother.

Since then, when I think about Alfonso I think of a spanish bull, full of pride, power, energies and a will to charge. Rather charge than back off. My personal impression since my first meeting with him.

Alfonso Giraldes Interview in Monte San Savino Show 2011

Banshee Studio - Madrid

Next time I meet Alfonso was in one of his painting classes, organised in my hometown, Augsburg.
Main topic of this was him explaning his approach on color theory and on painting. In the last years Alfonso's approach on painting changed over the years. He changed many. Including me. In this class he can open up a door for you if you want to listen.

He often says #fucksmoothness, 

but it is not saying "fuck smoothness" in the same sentence.

I went to his class during a time I was not in my best state of health and mind. The winter before this class I saw a dark valley and think it was some kind of small depression. I learned to get out there again. I learned that no light without shadow can exist. Alfonso's class helped me to understand it beside many other factors. In the end I can say Alfonso gave me back my happy painting juju.

First, after the class I was supermega confused. Then I took a class with Kirill Kanaev and guess what I was even more confused. I did not want to copy their way of working as I was more thinking to let their style influance my way of working and painting. I was multiconfused. And I knew how to be less - I had to paint. Paint, work with the brush and color to understand what I was aiming for. So I painted and I did not like the stuff I was painting back then. For a while. When the hurt was over I felt joy again, slowly found my way back into my spirit and juju of painting and workflow. Alfonso's class had a big influance on this. Also Kirills. And more factors, but I will write about such in future articles in this style, if you enjoy this one.

Here is a good impression on what you can get out of his class about color theory if you go there with the will to learn about painting:
Last weekend I was holding one of my MV's Beginners Classes in Madrid, Spain and was able to meet great people, great students and honest kindness whereever I looked. So much hospitality and joy in painting. I will write the review soon! Can not wait actually, but have to prepare another painting class first and answer tons of mails ... well, work things out.

Madrid.
My first time in Spain.
Beside all the wonders and happy moments I enjoyed during my weekend class for me it also meant I will be able to get to know Alfonso better. I did. He did. We did.

I was happy to spent time with him. He is loud, wild, angry, sad, happy, true, honest, strong, weak, scared and brave with all he is in the most honest way he can be. I enjoyed this as I learned to be like this myself. Honest to myself. Accepting own weakness, gaining strength from it. Maybe not as loud as him :)

I really enjoyed being guest in his studio, in his home and really enjoyed every moment with him, even some were a little wild in organisation. That is him and I accept him with all his weakness and strength. I call him a friend and even more one of the most inspirational painters I know, from my point of view.

Prado Museum 
Alfonso is there very often to understand more and more about painting. I was able to go there with him too, in great company. We did not have a lot of time and I asked him if he would show me his favourites. This was an amazing experience. I want to do this again. You can not imagine, being here ...

... or in many other places of this great jewel of art history with a wild, loud, powerful, energized, passionate banshee. Many people, including us tried to make him go pssstt, but you had to remind him after seven seconds about the same pssstt again. It was amazing. To be very dramatical I would even say I would pay for this experience if you could book Alfonso for this.

Some great and unbelievable inspirational moments and hours,
even when I usually grow very silent when confronted with art in this scale. This was an experience only Alfonso can give you, because he is Banshee.

Some of Alfonso's work

photo credits: Alfonso Giraldes

Troll Slayer

#fucksmoothness series. nº6

Anakin vs. Obiwan

He sculpts, he draws, he is loud in so many fields.

back in the studio ...

We had a lot of talks about happy painting, about fucksmoothness and about other messages floating around in the miniature world and community. Really deep and good and most important honest talks.

Studio Impressions

Der Schornsteinfeger kommt am: 

A gift for the studio from Toni.

Multipaints.

A wall of memories just like in MV jungle cave.

Somehow Alfonso and I speak the same language, of course with different voice levels and ways of teaching and doing. Every person, every painter is different. In the end we all aim for one very important thing: Enjoying what we do. From this we are able to learn, if we have fun we learn more things faster. If fun is running low passion can be lost.

It was wonderful to get to know more of the person who is Alfonso Giraldes, for me he is one creative genius, a mastermind even I do not like the word master, only in "Masters of the Universe".

What I have learned:

#Fucksmoothness is nothing you have to drop, cuz it is hot.
Fucksmoothness is something to appreciate with open arms as with it comes joy.
It does not mean to fuck smooth painting styles, it just means you should find your own by experementing what you like most about painting and then paint on with joy.

Alfonso is definatly in my top five miniature painting artists. I always enjoy his loud work. He was already painting when I started and since then he did not stop painting, thinking about painting, teaching about painting and learning more on his own path as a painter. If I am a pool of knowledge, Alfonso can be considered the ocean. The ocean can be calm, but also wild. Maybe Alfonso is the wind. A wind leads to a storm. Loud and roaring where he appears, like a Banshee.

Want to follow Alfonso?
You can see some of Alfonso's work on

Putty&Paint: http://www.puttyandpaint.com/BansheeArtStudio

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alfonso_giraldes_banshee/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alfonso.giraldes.banshee

Thank you for your friendship, your voice, your energies, 

your impact on the miniature painting world and on me.  

Never stop to paint. 

Never be silent.

Well, with this Kong Fu I want to start a series of such Kong Fu's. 
Miniature Painters who influanced me the most on my journey so far. They will come up not regularly as I have to find the right time to write and feel this, but be sure there will be some more. You will find this linked up in the interview section of MV.

Let me know if you enjoyed this and I will work on more articles like this.
Please use the comments for this. Thank you.

NEWS: 
There will be a recorded interview, I am interviewing Alfonso. Be sure not to miss this in the future to come!

Happy Painting!
- Roman

Next ones on my list, but please be patient - very patient:
Georg Damm aka Georc
Kirill Kanaev aka Yellow One
Christian Reckert aka Bestienmeister
Peter Toth aka Baphomet 
Fabrizio Rusto aka Rusto
Raffaele Picca aka Picster
Jeremie Bonamant Teboul 
Ben Komets
Sebastian Archer
Marc Masclans 
Pepa Saavedra
and many more ...


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